Hands on review: iPhone OS 3.0 chock full of changes

iPhone OS 3. OS.

The one-word summary for iPhone 3.0 should be "subtle." But don't go thinking that subtlety means boring—the changes that come with Apple's latest mobile OS are plentiful and hidden in many corners of the device. Apple previewed iPhone OS 3.0 to the world in March of this year and again in June at WWDC 2009, but there's no greater experience than playing around with the software and discovering all the surprises yourself. We did just that with iPhone OS 3.0 and discovered that while the cool big changes may get all the press, there are also numerous updates to smaller details should be anything but ignored.

Sure, the iPhone 3G S is exciting—who doesn't like new hardware?—but more important than the hardware itself is the software that runs on it. As a bonus for all iPhone users, iPhone OS 3.0 won't just run on the new iPhone 3G S; it will run on iPhone 3Gs and even the original iPhone. There are elements to iPhone OS 3.0 that only run on the iPhone 3G S, however, and we will address those in our iPhone 3G S review. This part of the review, however, will focus on features that are generally available to all iPhone users (but focused mostly on the iPhone 3G, since that's the device with the widest reach at the moment).

Search your heart out

By far our favorite feature of iPhone OS 3.0 is the new Spotlight search, which can be accessed from the new screen to the left of your Home screen (previously, the Home screen was as left as you could go). Search for anything there—contacts, e-mails, iPhone apps, music, podcasts, calendar events, or combinations of any of the above. The results will get you any and all media that fits what you searched for with a handy icon on the lefthand side to indicate what type of media it is.

As you can see from our screenshots above, searching for "Aurich" yielded Ars graphic guru Aurich Lawson's contact entry, a number of e-mails that included or mentioned him, and even his birthday in iCal. The Spotlight search does not, however, search things like your Safari history or bookmarks, or media used inside third-party iPhone apps. This is strictly limited to stuff that can be found from within Apple's apps and from the main springboard of the iPhone.

Of course, if you're like us, the most likely thing you're searching for is probably e-mail. You can still do this within the Spotlight search, but Mail finally has its own search function that allows you to search by more specific criteria. Search by who a message is from, who it's to, what the subject is, or all of the above.

If your settings leave a number of messages on the server, you can tap on a message indicating that you'd like to extend your search to those that are not stored in your inbox. Needless to say, road warriors, business users, and pretty much anyone who gets tons of e-mail should appreciate this long-needed addition.

We originally thought that searching Mail by "All" also searched the body of your messages, but a recently-published Apple support document says otherwise.

Copy & Paste

Cut, copy, and paste have been features that iPhone users have been bitching about requesting since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007. Two years later it has finally appeared in as graceful a way as Apple could make it, but is it really that great?

Though we wouldn't describe the feature as life-changing, those of us who use our iPhones heavily while out and about do actually find it to be useful on occasion. In order to cut or copy something, just tap and hold in the text entry area of anything—SMS, an e-mail, Safari—and a pop-up will ask whether you want to select the last word you entered or select all. Once you do that, you can cut or copy, and then paste into another text entry area.

This even applies to links and whatnot that you come across in Safari. Although Safari has always allowed you to mail a link to a page, what if you want to send it to someone in SMS or include it in a tweet? Just tap and hold on a link and a box will pop up, asking if you want to copy it (among other things). Copy it and then paste it wherever you want.

One thing that's kind of cool about Apple's copy/paste implementation is how it handles large blocks of text in Mobile Safari. I discovered this accidentally by holding too long on a page I was scrolling through from our forums. If you tap and hold, a little blue box will form around the block of text you're tapping on. If you slide your finger up or down, the box will expand to bigger and bigger blocks of text. Finally, a pop-up will ask if you want to Copy.

Cut/copy/paste isn't likely to blow your mind, and those who have been clamoring for this feature for two years really ought to find more meaning to their lives. Yes, this is a feature that many other phones (even non-smartphones) have had for years. We're just glad that Apple has finally caught up, and has done so in a way that makes sense.

Jacqui I <3 the numerous subtle (snarky) references to the minority of people who just can't shut the goddamn fuck up about every little tiny thing that wrongs them personally about the iPhone. I'm sure they're going to keep on posting now about how their concerns were most important.

It reminds me of the whole gapless thing for iPods a couple years ago. Couldn't read any goddamn thing about the iPod except how the iPod couldn't do gapless and it personally offended them that the iPod is the WORST mp3 player because of this. Now it's cut/paste with the iPhone and it personally offends them.

Jacqui I <3 the numerous subtle (snarky) references to the minority of people who just can't shut the goddamn fuck up about every little tiny thing that wrongs them personally about the iPhone. I'm sure they're going to keep on posting now about how their concerns were most important.

I very much disagree. The repeated comments like "XXX feature is here, but if you were waiting for it, you should get a life" really grated on my nerves as I read the review. Just because it isn't important to you doesn't mean it isn't important to others. IMO, it lessens the credibility of the review. Just detail the features and leave the snark out.

Other than that, I'm glad 3.0 finally dropped, happy about a lot of the changes (even moreso when MMS (my single biggest annoyance with the iPhone) goes online), and I'll be grabbing it tonight for sure.

The oddest thing is that every single feature that is "new" and "cool" (sans iTunes) was available on Windows Mobile phones since 2006 or so. The problem, of course, is that those phones are basically ugly, and the OS itself it is fairly inelegant in its looks and polish.

Note to Microsoft, Palm and others: it is not just the functionality. A less-feature rich phone can be much more desirable (and useful) if there was some thought put on the platform.

Of course, for people like me (cheap bastards) that less-desirable thing allowed me to get a phone that can do the same stuff (or more) than any iPhone for much less money. I have to put up with the oddities of WinMob, true, but I paid $20 and a cheaper plan for my Sprint HTC Touch.

Originally posted by Egocrata:The oddest thing is that every single feature that is "new" and "cool" (sans iTunes) was available on Windows Mobile phones since 2006 or so.

Including the "have to reboot every few days to stop it being so sluggish" feature. </sarcasm>

I'll agree with your points about usability/design trumping features, but apple's known that for the best part of a decade, from the non-upgradable sceen of the imac, to the 'No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame' ipod. Why MS or HTC can't figure that out is beyond me.

Forgot to mention, did you test the a2dp stuff? Did they implement a2dp or did they also go for avrcp? I imagine this feature is important to everyone with a car audio system that supports bluetooth audio (like Ford SYNC).

I was just talking to a friend of mine - an iPhone user, the lucky bastard - and mentioned the lack of meeting creation. His response was to send me an invitation to a meeting from his iPhone. I asked him how, and he just said "create a meeting and add invitees," with the disclaimer that he's synching to Exchange.

Even if it's limited to Exchange, though, I would think that would alleviate that concern for most business users.

Originally posted by Control Group:I was just talking to a friend of mine - an iPhone user, the lucky bastard - and mentioned the lack of meeting creation. His response was to send me an invitation to a meeting from his iPhone. I asked him how, and he just said "create a meeting and add invitees," with the disclaimer that he's synching to Exchange.

Even if it's limited to Exchange, though, I would think that would alleviate that concern for most business users.

Indeed, I used that feature at my old job all the time. Seemed to impress people (even other iPhone users - of which there were many at this place) that the phone wasn't just a good media device, and could also be used for business.

I've since left there and started working for a smaller shop that uses Google Apps for everything. Makes it even easier

A bullet list of features is not the best way to design a phone. The iPhone does not have and will never have a superset of all the features of its competitors. Same goes for the iPod. It doesn't have a bulit-in FM tuner ... yes, we know.

I've had half a dozen times when I really wanted copy/paste. I ended up pulling out a pen and paper and writing stuff down then typing it back in. That was sub-optimal, kind of a gotcha moment, but not exactly a deal breaker.

Anyway, looking forward to the new features. It sounds like they have cleared up a lot of niggling things.

Originally posted by gotung:I don't know if it's only for exchange users (I am), but when I create a calendar event, I have the option to add invitees. Once I hit "done" they get notifications of the event.

I tested by sending one to my gmail account, and it showed up on my gmail calender without issue.

Yeah I think you only get the option for invitees on an exchange account (for now).

We cannot fathom why one would want to delete an individual message instead of clearing an entire log unless that person is having an affair or sneaking around their parents. But hey, we don't judge.

If one text had some useful information that you wanted to keep for reference, but the rest of the conversation was ephemeral, I could see wanting to get rid of the clutter to make it easier find later on.

Originally posted by chong:Forgot to mention, did you test the a2dp stuff? Did they implement a2dp or did they also go for avrcp? I imagine this feature is important to everyone with a car audio system that supports bluetooth audio (like Ford SYNC).

Unfortunately we don't own cars ;( Note to Jacqui: Maybe we can find a ZipCar or something that supports it!

I'm really curious about Stereo Bluetooth since I have an iPhone 2g (without a cell plan - just using it as a Touch with a camera), and absolutely detest having to use third-party dongles in order to use my own headphones (both of the dongles I've bought broke). Here's hoping 3.0 means BT works with it, and that I don't have to sell it and get a Touch instead(oh, hey, I guess that makes me one of those people who bitch at everything.

I like the improvements to moving through longer audio or video. Before, if you were listening to a podcast that was an hour long the timeline was just too imprecise; no matter how slowly you tried to move your finger it would jump by 20 seconds or so. Now you can easily move through one second at a time, or anything in between, if you need to.

Originally posted by chong:Forgot to mention, did you test the a2dp stuff? Did they implement a2dp or did they also go for avrcp? I imagine this feature is important to everyone with a car audio system that supports bluetooth audio (like Ford SYNC).

I've been using OS 3.0 in my 2009 Escape w/ Sync 1.3 for about a week. I'm not really pleased with the implementation. I believe the iPhone is A2DP without AVRCP. I was unable to get next/previous track functionality (from my steering wheel), you also can't do things like select a particular artist, playlist, genre, etc with A2DP. That and it decides to pick a random track to start with whenever it connects via A2DP, so whatever I was listening to before I got out of the car (over USB) wont be what I continue listening to. I was hoping to move to A2DP/AVRCP but it doesn't appear to be at the functionality level I want.

I've also had to change the order in which I do stuff to keep the phone from reverting to A2DP when I unplug it from USB - now I have to shut the car off, open the door (to turn off Sync) and then unplug it from USB. Likewise, plug it in before I turn on the car when I go somewhere.

As mentioned you set up meetings by specifying people in the "invitees" section when adding an event. They will then receive an email with the invite details. Maybe its an Exchange only feature, but it does work.

A2D2 Bluetooth does not seem to have AVRCP implemented fully. Play/Pause works, and calls can be answered etc. but skip/rewind do not work (tried with Jabra BT3030).

I'm seeing huge improvements in battery life. I used to have to juggle 3G on only when I actively needed fast data access otherwise I wouldn't make it through some workdays. (location services on but rarely used, occasional web browsing over 3G for a few minutes at a time, push email on, a few calls, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off)

Over the past week since upgrading to 3.0 I've been able to continue doing the above and can leave Wi-Fi (ask to connect) and BT on all day without coming close to low battery.

The only other change has been that I'm not running any jailbreak apps at the moment, will be interesting to see how things are once Dev Team releases the new pwnage tool.

While at WWDC, a friend had upgraded his phone to 3.0 as it was his development device. He lost it there and thought he left it in a previous session but couldn't find it. He sent it a message via "Find My iPhone" and then later got the feedback that it was shut off, obviously by the person who found it. He's never heard from that phone again... AT WWDC!!!!!